Royal Mail's Olympic race to produce medallist stamps

The 60p stamps feature images of the winning athletes during their competition or victory ceremony

The GB gold rush has created a marathon task for Royal Mail, which is rushing out stamps in honour of each winner.

Royal Mail has promised to issue a stamp bearing the medallist's picture within 24 hours of the victory being secured.

A team of more than 100 people works against the clock to rush out the stamps, which are printed at six locations around the UK.

That means they can reach 500 post offices by lunchtime the day after a gold medal win - even on Sundays.

At least one of those branches is in the home town of each gold medal winner.

Some 4,700 branches will receive the gold medal stamps within a week from a 90-strong fleet of Royal Mail vehicles.

Weekend gold-rush

Once a gold is secured, Royal Mail officials have just one hour to review images submitted by official Olympic photographers Getty Images and select one to give to the eight-strong stamp design team in London.

On Sunday, Ben Ainslie had an emotional victory in the Men's Sailing Finn, and Andy Murray's win in his men's singles tennis final Wimbledon rematch against Roger Federer took the tally to 16.